ATTACK ON ARTARCTIC ICEPACK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 5

ATTACK ON ARTARCTIC ICEPACK

U.S. BREAKERS’ BID FORCE PASSAGE VOYAGE ROUND COAST (10 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 12, Two United States Navy icebreakers, now nearing the icebergs south of New Zealand, will attempt a feat unique in Polar exploration. They plan to force their way through the hitherto unconquered icepack off the region of the coloured lakes discovered by the Byrd expedition in 1946. Thence they will try to circumnavigate

half of the vast Antarctic Continent, sailing through open water canals that usually fringe thousands of miles of rocky and ice shoreline. Their primary job will be to hug the coast and obtain ground control points by which the aerial photographs taken last year can be oriented. The “Burton Island” and “Edisto” are considered 10 times as effective as "The pear” in which Admiral Cruzen in 1940 pushed east from the Ross Sea to a point about 100 miles beyind Sulzberger Bay. It Is hoped that within the next few weeks the icebreakers will be able to reach the coast south of Australia where the open lakes were found and, ultimately, will reach the Ross Sea and force a way beyond to Marguerite Bay where Commander Finn Ronne heads another American expedition that has been exploring the Weddell Sea area.